lunedì 15 aprile 2013

Linguine for Marathon Day

Famous in all the world, the Boston Marathon passes 300 feet from my house here in Natick. The advantages are obvious; one minute on foot and there we are. The disadvantage is that all the roads are closed, from early in the morning.

Without being able to go to the store, what do we already have in the kitchen ... and in the garden? (This is a reluctant spring, both in America and in Italy. But certain little things are starting to grow. Can we take advantage of them today?)

Ingredients

1 lb linguine (I prefer Poiatti or Divella, ma De Cecco is hardly a sacrifice)
extra-virgin olive oil (I use San Comaio, the best oil in Avellino)
hickory-smoked bacon, thickly sliced. I used 4 strips; if the slices were the normal, thin ones, I would have used 6 or 8. In any case, I used half the quantity that you see in the photo.
1 small onion, chopped
garlic scapes, from the garden!
5 peeled tomatoes, quartered
100 mL homemade chicken stock
220 g chick peas
parsley, from the supermarket but fresh
young oregano, from the garden!
freshly-ground black pepper
freshly-grated cheese (I used a handful each of pecorino romano and parmigiano reggiano)

Preparation

Heat the oil in a frying pan. Cut the strips of bacon in little squares. Fry them on medium (not high) heat. After a few minutes, add the onion and cook, still on medium heat. With scissors cut the wonderful garlic scapes, letting them fall into the pan. Also add the black pepper (which you could also add earlier, with the bacon, if you want). A minute after adding the scapes, add the quartered tomatoes. Cook them, still on medium heat, until they disintegrate a little bit. (Regrettably, most cans of tomatoes contain calcium chloride, a chemical that the companies add to prevent the tomatoes from disintegrate. Unfortuately, we want them to disintegrate! We also want the lack of chemicals in our food, whenever possible. Alas.)

Add the stock and deglaze the pan for 30-60 seconds. Add the chick peas, parsley (cut with the scissors), and oregano. Cover, lower the heat from medium to low, and cook for 5-10-15 minutes. (Depends when the pasta is finished.)

While it's cooking, you can add a few ounces of the pasta water, and at the end you can drizzle a little more oil. But with the proportions suggested above, I don't think that it'll be necessary.